2 sentenced for smuggling Cuban ballplayers to U.S.
A sports agent and a baseball trainer were sentenced to federal prison Thursday after their convictions for illegally smuggling Cuban players and their relatives into the United States.
Agent Bartolo Hernandez, of Weston, was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months, while trainer Julio Estrada, of Miami, was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months. Both sentences are to be followed by three years’ supervised release. Theme na rescheduled to surrender to authorities Dec. 14.
Hernandez and Estrada were convicted by a jury in March after a six-week trial.
Trial evidence showed the pair ran an
international operation in 2009 to smuggle Cuban players off the communist-run island—via Mexico and Haiti — in return for a cut of their lucrative baseball contracts. The players included Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox, former Marlin Adeiny Hechavarria, now of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Leonys Martin of the Chicago Cubs.
During one of the trial’s most memorable moments, Abreu testified he ate part of his fake passport while on a flight from Haiti to Miami to discard the evidence before landing.
Martin also told jurors about a kidnapping attempt he managed to escape by crossing the U.S. border. Players were brought on speedboats to Mexico and Haiti, where they would claim residency and list bogus jobs — such as welders, mechanics or pizza deliverymen — on forged documents. They would then be cleared to sign up with Major League Baseball teams in the U.S.
None of the players willbe charged or prosecuted.
Court documents show prosecutors asked the judge to exceed the nine-year maximum sentences recommended by federal guidelines. Attorneys for bothmen sought more lenient prison terms.
In determining the sentences, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said she struggled with conflicting portraits of men who were loved by family, friends and their baseball community, but also worked with nefarious characters — armed, violent human smugglers who extorted victims.
“The paradox of men who are coaching children as part of their baseball family,” she said, “and associating with men who exploit children and traffic children and beat children.”
Estrada and Hernandez were driven by money and not “humanitarian efforts” to help Cuban players fulfill their dreams of becoming baseball pros, the judge said. Court documents show the financial incentives for Estrada and Hernandez were $13.6 million and $2.4 million, respectively.
In contrast, defense attorneys described Hernandez and Estrada as men who were involved in the community, coaching youths and arranging for baseball players to visit children at hospitals. Friends and relatives told the judge Hernandez and Estrada were mentors and father figures.
Hernandez also went out of his way to help new ballplayers become settled in their new country, defense attorney Jeffrey Marcus said. Estrada, too, maintained ties with players he trained, even after getting his cut of their contracts, his defense attorney Sabrina Vora-Puglisi said.
“The biggest beneficiaries of the entire episode are the players themselves,” Marcus said. “They’re here and they’re living their version of the American dream.”
The pair’s defense argued co-conspirators collectively received sentences thatwere far more lenient than what Hernandez and Estrada each faced. But federal prosecutor H. Ron Davidson said the pair ran a sophisticated operation involving dangerous smugglers who funneled dozens of players and their relatives into the country.
“Who is worse? The brains or the brawn?” Davidson said. “Or are the people behind them worse?
“I’m frightened by the lesson these defendants are presenting today,” he said. “At no point do they acknowledge their own responsibility. The lesson we need to be sending is: Do not break the law. That’s the best lesson instilled in these men who look up to these defendants.”